Like a window to the other side of the world

Above is a pic from Phil's webcam in China. A few of us gathered together to celebrate his birthday recently and being able to see the big guy again definitely brought a smile to my face. Isn't it amazing how there are so many ways for people to stay connected these days? And yet as new technology makes communication easier, I feel like something has been lost in our generation. If you think about it, we're the first generation to grow up in the age of cell phones, IM, laptops, webcams, and the likes. It always makes me wonder, what did communication use to look like? I know there were pay phones, pagers, etc. But how did friendships form? For many us, we can agree that we form most of our friendships through AIM and maybe more recently, Facebook. It's just too much out of the way to go meet someone up to talk or share a meal. And if we were to do that with someone of the opposite sex -- well that's been somewhat of a taboo in the asian christian circle. So did we miss out on an important piece of communication? Have we become dependent on technology to foster our relationships with people? I guess it's one of those things that we'll never really know but intriguing to think about.

One thing's for sure though. Good communication will always be at the foundation of every meaningful relationship.